mercredi 24 septembre 2008

Capricornus 14

α1, Double, 3.2 and 4.2, yellow. α2, Triple, 3, 11.5, and 11.5, pale yellow, ash, and lilac.
These are the Prima and Secunda Giedi, or plain Algedi, from the Arabian constellation title Al Jady.
Other titles, Dabih and the degenerated Dschäbbe and Dahabeh, applied to them, but more commonly to β, have been traced by some to Al Jabbah, the Forehead, although the stars are nearer the tip of the horn; but the names undoubtedly come from Al Saʽd al Dhābiḥ, the Lucky One of the Slaughterers, the title of the 20th manzil (of which these alphas and β were the determinant point), manifestly referring to the sacrifice celebrated by the heathen Arabs at the heliacal rising of Capricorn. And of similar signification was the Euphratean Shak-shadi and the Coptic Eupeutōs, or Opeutus, for the same lunar asterism of those peoples.
Brown thinks that α, then seen only as a single star, with β and ν was known by the Akkadians as Uz, the Goat; and as Enzu in the astronomy of their descendants; while Epping is authority for the statement that this, or perhaps β, marked the 26th ecliptic asterism of the Babylonians, Qarnu Shahū, the Horn of the Goat. Brown also says that α represented the 8th antediluvian king Amar Sin, — Ἀμέμψινος.
In Hipparchos' time the two alphas were but 4ʹ apart, and it was not till towards Bayer's day that they had drifted sufficiently away from each other to be readily separated by the naked eye. Their distance in 1880 was 6 1/4ʹ, and this is increasing by 7ʺ in every hundred years.
They culminate on the 9th of September.
Smyth described a minute blue companion of α2 which he caught "in little evanescent flashes, so transient as again to recall Burns's snow-flakes on a stream"; and mentioned Sir John Herschel's suggestion that this might shine by reflected light. Alvan G. Clark doubled this in 1862, the distance being 1ʺ.2, and the position angle 239°.
β1, and β2, 2.5 and 6, each double, orange yellow and sky blue.
Dabih Major and Dabih Minor are the names of this so‑called double, but telescopically multiple, star, taken from the title of the manzil of which, with α, it formed part. These betas, with α, ν, ο, π, and ρ farther to the south, were the 20th sieu of China, Nieu, or Keen Nieu, the Ox, anciently Ngu, or Gu, themselves being the determinants. The lunar asterism was in some way intimately connected in religious worship with the rearing of the silkworm in that country.
The two stars mark the head of the Goat, the components 205ʺ distant from each other, and each very closely double. The duplicity of β1 was first recognized in 1883 by Barnard from its behavior at an occultation by the moon, this discovery being soon verified and measured by Professor Young, Hough, and other observers.
, 3.8.
Nashira is from Al Saʽd al Nashirah, the Fortunate One, or the Bringer of Good Tidings, which the early Arabs applied to this when taken with δ. Smyth gave it as Saʽdubnáshirah; and the Standard Dictionary repeats this as Saib' Nasch-rú‑ah!
Bayer had the later Deneb Algedi, the Tail of the Goat, that is more proper for δ; the Alfonsine Tables of 1521, Denebalchedi, which has degenerated to Scheddi; and the fine wall star-map of Doctor Ferdn. Reuter, Deneb Algethi; but this is erroneous, and a confusion with the Arabian title for the constellation Hercules.
γ marked the 27th Babylonian ecliptic asterism, Mahar sha hi-na Shahū, the Western One in the Tail of the Goat.
With δ, ε, κ and stars in Aquarius and Pisces it was the Chinese Luy Pei Chen, the Intrenched Camp.
δ, 3.1.
Deneb Algedi is the transcription by Ulug Beg's translator of Al Dhanab al Jady, the Tail of the Goat; changed to Scheddi in some lists, — a name also found for γ.
Ideler said that these stars were Al Muḥibbain, the Two Friends, an Arabic allegorical title for any two closely associated objects; but Beigel differed with him as to this, and wrote it Al Muhanaim, the Two Bending Stars, — in the flexure of the tail, — for "moral beings are foreign to the nomad sky."
It marked the 28th ecliptic constellation of Babylonia, Arkat sha hi‑na Shahū, the Eastern One in the Tail of the Goat.
5° to the eastward is the point announced by Le Verrier ( Flammarion, who was intimate with Le Verrier, thinks that the latter never had the curiosity to observe his planet through the telescope, strangely content with his mathematical achievement! And it is interesting to know that Doctor Galle, in his 85th year, in 1896 received the congratulations of the astronomical world upon the 50th anniversary of the finding of Neptune ) as the position of his predicted new planet, — Neptune, — where Galle, first assistant of the celebrated Encke at the Berlin Observatory, under Le Verrier's direction, visually discovered it on the 23d of September, 1846. It had been suspected by Bouvard in 1821, and seen six times from France and England just previous to its discovery, but without knowledge of its character.
ζ, η, θ, and ι, 4th- and 5th‑magnitude stars on the body, were respectively Yen, Chow, Tsin, and Tae, names of old feudal states in China.
λ, 5.4, with ξ Aquarii and others near by, was Tien Luy Ching, the Heavenly Walled Castle; and μ, 5.24, was Kuh, Weeping. λ and μ mark the extreme end of the tail.
ν, 4.7, was Kazwini's Al Shat, the Sheep that was to be slaughtered by the adjacent Dhābiḥ, the stars β.
The following also seem to be named only in China: υ, 5.3, marked Loo Sieu, the Lace-like asterism; φ, 5.3, and χ, 5.3, taken together were Wei, the name of one of the old feudal states; ψ, 4.3, was Yue, a Battle‑ax; while the 5th‑magnitudes A, b, and m also bore titles from feudal times of the states Tsoo, Tsin, and Chaou.
Bayer gave A, b, and c as Tres ultimae Deneb Algedi; but Heis puts A in the right fore arm, b in the belly, and c — Flamsteed's 46 — outside of and beyond the tail, in the ribs of Aquarius, thus showing a change of figuring in the past three centuries.

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